When Will a Woman Be the Richest Person in the World?

By Robert Frank

Women may be doing better than men in the broader economy, but they’re still under-represented at the very top.

Bloomberg

Georgina “Gina” Rinehart

As we’ve written before, the number of women on the Forbes list of richest Americans has fallen by half since 1986. And of the 1,000 people on Britain’s Rich List, only 105 are women. It seems more likely that a woman will become President before a woman tops any of the world’s rich lists (the former being far more important than the latter).

Yet now comes news that the richest person in the world may one day soon be a woman. More specifically, an Australian woman.

According to a report from Citigroup cited in the Australian press, mining heiress Georgina “Gina” Rinehart is “on course to overtake” Carlos Slim as the richest person in the world if commodity prices keep rising.

The report, which mainly looks at 400 of the world’s top mining projects, says that Ms. Rinehart’s three coal and iron ore projects are among the 10 most promising mining projects in the world, and could catapult her to the top of the rich heap.

An Australian business website said that if Ms. Rinehart’s private company –- Hancock Prospecting — were publicly traded, she could have a current net worth of $30 billion, putting her in the top 10 globally. Based on the mine outputs and commodity prices, her annual profits could reach $10 billion a year and her net worth could approach $100 billion, according to the analysis.

Ms. Rinehart would make for an interesting world leader in wealth. Her dad, who founded the company, was an eccentric, swashbuckling prospector. Ms. Rinehart won control of the mining empire after a bitter family feud with her stepmother, a Filipina nurse.

Ms. Rinehart is famously reclusive and has only given a few interviews in her life. That may change, of course, if she takes the title from Mr. Slim.

Do you think a woman will ever be the richest person in the world? Why aren’t there more women on the rich lists?

Comments (5 of 37)

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11:51 am August 10, 2011

Jeff wrote :

Why does the sex of a person matter? Redistrubution again???

6:49 pm August 4, 2011

Wow.. wrote :

So she's worthless if she isn't someone that EVERYONE thinks is beautiful and thin? How ridiculous. There isn't anyone on this planet that everyone would agree is gorgeous or whatever. Second, so she inherited it... ummm... very few people (including men) reach the scale of being billionaires without having some help. Even the flambouyant Trump started with a measley million from his dad and invested wisely (for the most part). Here people say she inherited it, yea, but she inherited it a while ago.. plenty of time for mismanagement to destroy the fortune or at minimum, her chances to be the richest person in the world. Is it even a title that matters.. clearly it does to alot of people but ultimately I liked reading that she was a private person... she has some values that mean she doesn't want to be famous just for being famous which is what our culture (based on the popularity of Paris Hilton and the Kardashians and reality shows clearly indicate) is enthralled with. You don't think she's pretty enough, whatever, she isn't on your television every night trying to convince you to love her for no good reason.. so I would think you'd be grateful that she's not the next Paris Hilton or Snooki who thinks you have to watch her because she decided she's all that without any evidence to back her up!

1:59 pm August 4, 2011

Dr manhattan wrote :

Theres not many self made women billionaires , that's why women look up to oprah so much. If there are women billonaires there old money. Don't get me wrong there are alot of intelligent women in the world but
they let alot things get in the way of them becoming successful like family, relationships.

About The Wealth Report

The Wealth Report is a daily blog focused on the culture and economy of the wealthy. It is written by Robert Frank, a senior writer for the Wall Street Journal and author of the newly released book “THE HIGH-BETA RICH.”